A Good Solution
by Lady Callista
Summary: When Chakotay begins to distance himself from her, Kathryn wonders if she has finally pushed him away one time too many, or if something more sinister is at work. A VAMB 2013 Secret Summer exchange fic.


Disclaimer: Star Trek: Voyager and all it entails belong to Paramount and whoever else legally owns them. I am making no money from this. I'm just taking some characters that were mistreated and trying to make them a little happier.

AN: My entry in the VAMB 2013 Secret Summer exchange. So, I was asked to write a J/C fic with a mix of adventure, and romance and/or friendship, that also included the senior staff. I started to get a little nervous at the word adventure, as I never write that, and in my notes on over two dozen story ideas have nothing that would qualify as an adventure. Then I saw the no-gos for the story, all of which worked great for me except that one of them was no angst. Um… how do I write this couple without angst? That's a good third of what I write, with the rest being mostly romance. So, this was definitely a challenge, one my muse took forever to decide to help me with. I got in as much adventure as I could but am not sure I really succeeded; this plays way more like an episode than anything I've ever written though, meaning it has way more plot than romance at least. But the recipient liked it, so let's see how everyone thinks I did. At the very least I think I found a cool and unique storyline. (Timeline is late season 4, post-Hunters)

* * *

A Good Solution

by Lady Callista

"And according to Paris, Ensign Murphy and Crewman Anderson started dating last week, although they're trying to keep it quiet." Chakotay finished filling Kathryn in on the crew gossip as they lingered over dessert in her quarters.

"Paris usually knows." Kathryn gave a wry laugh as she shook her head slightly. "Although I don't understand why they're keeping it quiet."

"He is technically her superior." Chakotay said lightly, catching her eyes significantly. "And there's protocol and all."

Kathryn's thoughts flashed back abruptly to a conversation they had had a few weeks ago about whether she herself should indulge her feelings or hold fast to protocol. She offered hesitantly, "It's not the same."

Chakotay cocked his head curiously, wondering what she was going to say next. This was the first time they had spoken, even circumspectly, about whether or not she had made a decision on what she was going to do now that her safety net was gone.

She blushed slightly, but held his gaze. "I know they're both security, but all they have to do is let Tuvok know they're together and he won't assign them to the same team. He's not her direct superior, they're just in the same department. The odds of her life ever being in his hands, of him being forced to choose between the ship and…"

He could see the indecision in her eyes as she trailed off, and he smiled reassuringly as he offered gently, "They're both Starfleet officers. We have to believe that even if something did come up, they would handle it as Starfleet officers."

She gave him a small smile, setting her elbow on the table and raising her hand towards him. Her mind was whirling; they both knew they were no longer talking about two of their crew. But she didn't know what to say, hadn't made up her mind either way yet if she was honest with herself.

Kathryn knew that maintaining protocol was important, and she had spent so much of her life learning and following Starfleet protocols that they almost felt like they were ingrained in her soul. The idea of breaking one as important as not having a relationship with an officer under your direct command in the chain was so anathema that she almost couldn't consider it.

And then he mirrored her gesture, and her heart lurched as he intertwined his large fingers with her own small ones, his thumb stroking lightly over her own in a way they had only ever touched once before. All the feelings she had for him flooded through her, and suddenly she knew that losing him would destroy something in her whether she broke the protocol or not. "Chakotay, I don't…"

She was cut off by a decidedly unwelcome beep. "Bridge to Captain."

"Janeway here."

Chakotay started to slide his hand out of hers, going into business mode, but she merely tightened her grip, trying to tell him with her eyes the words that had been cut off.

"Captain, we are detecting an emergency distress call from an unidentified vessel less than a light year away." Tuvok's calm voice flowed over the comm.

"Set an intercept course, Tuvok." Kathryn ordered as she released Chakotay's hand reluctantly and rose. "Senior officers to the bridge. I'm on my way."

"Acknowledged, Captain. Bridge out."

"We'll finish this later." Kathryn said softly, holding his eyes for an extended instant before moving to the door.

"Kathryn…"

"You were just talking about handling things like Starfleet officers." She turned, her face showing she was already in captain mode.

"Yes, ma'am." His eyes twinkled as he circled the table towards her, and her raised eyebrows contrasted the amusement on her face before she turned again and headed towards the door.

Chakotay had already fallen in a step behind her when the computer beeped again, acknowledging the order to summer all senior officers.

"Commander Chakotay to the bridge."

=/\=

"Their warp core is going critical, Captain." Tuvok reported about thirty minutes later as they dropped out of warp next to the ship broadcasting the distress call. "There is nothing we can do at this point to prevent a breach."

"Sensors only detecting one life form." Harry chimed in.

"Can you get a lock?" Chakotay asked, rising to face the ops station.

"Affirmative." Harry's fingers flew over the console.

"Beam him directly to Sickbay." Kathryn rose as well, her eyes flicking to Chakotay, who read the order in her eyes and left at once for Sickbay, calling for a security team as he went. "Tom, get us away from that ship."

Tom acknowledged the order even as his fingers hit the final button to warp the ship out of danger. "Back on our original heading, we've added about an hour to our eta at that M-class planet we've been heading towards."

"Stay on that course for now, although we may have to change course when we find out where our guest is from." Kathryn settled back into her command chair for a moment, hitting a few buttons on the panel next to her to pull up their course and have a quick look at it. She was about to comm Sickbay to ask Chakotay how their new guest was and to let him know that she was heading down there when two things happened at once.

"Additional security to Sickbay!" Chakotay's stressed voice sounded over the comm just as Tuvok's panel began beeping rapidly, and she rose to face him as he said urgently, "Captain, weapons fire detected in Sickbay."

"Go." Kathryn ordered, giving a few more orders to give him a head start before saying, "Harry, you have the bridge. Tom, you're with me." Then she charged to the turbolift and headed down to Sickbay with her medic hot on her heels.

She didn't hear the sounds of phaser fire as she hurried down the corridor towards Sickbay, so she didn't slow her pace as she approached. The doors opened to a scene that made her heart sink. Chakotay, as well as what she assumed were the first two security officers to respond, were all unconscious on the floor, although she saw no evidence of weapon burns. Tuvok had his phaser on an alien who was also being physically restrained by three more security personnel, and the sparks from the main panel on the wall told her that the doctor was out of commission. She rushed to Chakotay a second ahead of Tom, going to her knees and automatically feeling for a pulse. "He's alive."

Tom nodded as he picked up a medical tricorder from the floor, where it had likely been knocked during the struggle. "I'm not detecting any injuries other than a concussion."

"All three were unconscious when we arrived." Tuvok reported, causing Kathryn's head to snap up to him. "Our guest appears delusional."

Kathryn looked fully at the alien for the first time since she had entered the room. Knowing Tuvok had him under control, her first priority had been her downed first officer, and the panic that had sliced through her at the thought that he could have been dead. She buried all of her emotions now, rising even as Tom moved to one of the security officers and she heard the other beginning to stir.

The alien was humanoid in appearance, although his skin was a burnt orange color that seemed also somehow pearlescent. He struggled violently against the security officers holding him, his eyes rolling wildly and his face indicating what in a human would be hysterics. And unless the universal translator was malfunctioning, he was also babbling complete nonsense.

"Lieutenant Torres, please report to Sickbay." Kathryn ordered even as Tom approached the alien cautiously, medical tricorder in hand. They needed the doctor back.

"I'm reading high levels of niatin radiation in his tissues, Captain." Tom reported. "It's a waste product put out by some warp cores, exposure causes mania and extreme delusions in most humanoid species. He probably doesn't even realize where he is, or that we were trying to help him."

Kathryn nodded even as her eyes dropped to her feet as Chakotay began to stir. She knelt down to make sure she was in his line of vision even as she continued speaking to Tom. "Can you sedate him?"

Tom frowned over the readings for a moment, then nodded. "I think so, although some of these readings are really confusing. I could use the Doc."

B'Elanna entered in time to hear his last words, and with a sigh turned to the large wall panel. "What happened?"

"Sedate him, Tom." Kathryn ordered, looking to Tuvok for an answer.

The Vulcan only shook his head. "He was just exiting Sickbay when I arrived. He was resistant to the stun setting on the phasers, and we were forced to overcome him physically. When we got him back into Sickbay, we found the Doctor's panel destroyed and the Commander and two crewmen unconscious."

"Our new guest was going crazy by the time I got here." Chakotay added in a flat voice, rubbing the back of his neck absently. "Both security officers were already down, and he had just fired some kind of disruptor at the main control panel, although he didn't seem to be aiming at anything in particular. I tried to restrain him, but he must have overpowered me."

"Are you okay?" Kathryn asked softly as she laid a hand on his arm, trying to catch his eyes.

"I'm fine, Captain." He said as he rose, turning his attention to the prisoner and completely ignoring her concern.

At his distance, she wondered if he was taking the whole idea of being professional Starfleet officers too far, then it occurred to her that with her track record he likely assumed that her earlier interrupted statement was going to be another rejection. But she couldn't think about that now. Kathryn allowed herself to slip fully back into the role of captain even as a kernel of worry blossomed in her belly.

"He's out, Captain." Tom reported as he helped security lift the alien onto one of the biobeds. "There's something odd about these readings. I can't place it, but…"

"Just keep him sedated, Tom." Kathryn ordered. "Treat him for the radiation exposure, and then let's see what the Doctor has to say."

"That may take a five or six hours, Captain." B'Elanna jumped back as the panel shot more sparks. "Over half of these circuits will have to be replaced, they're completely fused."

"Work as fast as you can." Kathryn directed. "We can't learn anything about our guest until we can get him healthy."

"This may help, Captain." Chakotay offered, picking up a case that bore the same insignia as the alien's uniform. "I'll take it to one of the labs, analyze whatever we find."

"Keep me updated." She said even as she nodded her agreement. She wanted to open it now and see what was inside, and was surprised that wasn't what he wanted as well, but knowing it could be anything did mean it should be treated carefully. "Tuvok, stay here with our guest, I'll be on the bridge."

=/\=

"Mr. Paris has successfully treated our guest for the radiation, but is keeping him sedated until we get the Doctor back online to check him, which Ms. Torres still estimates as another five hours." Tuvok's voice filled her ready room as Kathryn went over reports. Chakotay had just finished reporting in as well, saying that the box contained what looked like a computer core, and that they had been working for the past hour to try and make it compatible with _Voyager's_ systems.

"Understood, Tuvok. Let me know when the Doctor is online. Janeway out." Kathryn rose from her desk, heading out to the bridge. She felt like a bad host keeping their guest sedated for that long, but knew that until the Doctor could thoroughly check him out it would be safer, both for him and for the ship. Although this situation seemed fairly straightforward, she had learned years ago to not take anything in the Delta Quadrant at face value.

Harry rose from the first officer's chair as she entered the bridge, but she waved him back down. "Tuvok, B'Elanna, and Tom are still in Sickbay, and Chakotay is in the computer lab trying to access something the alien brought over with him." Kathryn said as she settled in her chair for a moment, lowering her voice. "I want you to go over all the data we got on our guest's ship, see if we can figure out what happened. I don't want to wake him up until we have the Doctor online; Tom didn't like some of the readings he was getting."

"Where will you be?" Harry questioned.

"In the mess hall with Neelix." Kathryn sighed, gesturing with the PADD in her hand. "He's had this _spectacular_ idea for a party next week, and I need to head him off."

"Good luck." Harry chuckled as she rose. "I'll get the report done as soon as I can."

"By alpha shift tomorrow is fine, Harry." She smiled. "Are you good with taking the rest of Tuvok's bridge shift?"

"I had the day off, so I'm fine." Harry replied, then lowered his voice. "Captain, you were on duty for almost 12 hours today. After you deal with Neelix you should go back to your quarters, we need at least one of our senior officers well-rested tomorrow."

She turned a mock-glare on him. "Just because you're sitting in his chair doesn't mean you need to channel Chakotay."

Harry gave her an innocent smile but nothing more, and she marveled at how much he had changed over the years as she left the bridge with a chuckle.

=/\=

"What's going on in there, Ayala?" Yuki Kyoto asked as she paused outside the computers lab as the door closed behind the tall security officer.

"What do you mean?" Ayala tilted his head down to the shorter ensign.

"I've been in Engineering all night, and four different people have been summoned here. None of them came back to duty; Commander Chakotay commed saying they were being reassigned to some big project." Kyoto leaned closer, wanting to know what the big secret was.

"I can't really describe it." Ayala grinned. "Just go in and talk to Chakotay, you'll see."

She grinned at his melodramatic expression. "We still on for dinner tonight?"

"Dinner?" His eyes grew puzzled.

"For the past three years we've always had dinner on the nights of our kid's birthdays. Your son's is today, isn't it?" Kyoto tilted her head in confusion.

"Yes, yes of course." Ayala said at once. "Dinner tonight. You better get in there though, Chakotay's waiting."

Kyoto watched him in confusion for a moment as he turned and walked away; it had almost seemed like he didn't remember that it was his son's birthday. Shrugging it off, she turned and entered the lab, surprised when the first person she saw was Ensign Baytard. What could be going on that would require a helmsman?

"Hey, Pablo. What's going on?"

=/\=

Kathryn had indeed gone back to her quarters after checking in with Neelix, and managed a few hours of sleep. She checked the chronometer upon waking, and noted that it would be nearly an hour until B'Elanna finished with the Doctor if she was still on schedule. She wrestled with her hair for a few moments before deciding it was just a bad hair day and pinning it up in a twist, something she had rarely done since cutting it. She was just about to call down to Sickbay when her door chimed. "Enter."

Chakotay walked in, a small case held at his side.

"Something else besides the data core was in the case?" She asked as she finished off her coffee and headed to the replicator to order another one.

"Oh, no, these are just reports I need to catch up on." He said with a small smile. "It'll take at least an hour yet until we get the core working. I thought we could have some breakfast."

"Raincheck?" She offered with a smile. "I've got a meeting in ten minutes with the heads of the teams we're sending down when we arrive at that M-class planet later today. Although I did want to talk to you for a minute."

He set the case down on the table. "About what?" His expression was completely neutral.

"Chakotay, I…" She reached out hesitantly, her palm towards him and fingers open in an echo of the night before. She felt the hurt flow briefly when he didn't respond to the gesture, and the kernel of worry that had taken root the night before when he was so distant from her grew in size.

"Well, if we can't do breakfast, there was this one report I wanted you to look at." Chakotay had just reached down to open the case when the comm beeped.

"Kim to Janeway."

Kathryn studied Chakotay with concern even as she responded, "Janeway here."

"Captain, I've got that report you wanted."

"I'll be right there. Janeway out." Yet she paused to study her friend. "Is everything okay, Chakotay?"

"Of course, Captain. But this report…" Chakotay's face was still neutral.

"We'll go over it this afternoon." She pulled herself into business mode. If she didn't know better she would have thought it wasn't even him, but that wasn't possible, and right now she wanted Harry's report on the destroyed ship. Personal matters would have to wait, especially as he didn't seem ready to talk about them either. She had already triggered her door when she added over her shoulder, "I'll see you on the bridge later."

Kathryn pondered the last expression she had glimpsed on his face the entire way to the bridge. She didn't understand why he had looked frustrated.

=/\=

"This is so strange." Tom mused out loud as he went over the deeper scans he had taken of the alien. "He has high adrenal readings, despite the sedative."

"That could simply be normal for his species." Tuvok commented, his eyes flicking to B'Elanna as the sounds of electrical sparks and Klingon curses floated across the room.

"It could be, but his whole body chemistry is strange." Tom replied, checking something in his readings with the medical databanks. "Most of the species we've run into, even out here in the Delta Quadrant, aren't that different from the ones in the databanks. Organs may be in different places, or there may be an extra one or a missing one, the blood may be based on a different element, but the similarities are still remarkable."

"And he is markedly different?"

"I've run the scans three times." Tom answered. "The body chemistry is closer to Trill than anything else, and I'm registering something inside him that could be a symbiant-like creature, but he has no internal organs that I can differentiate. It's almost as if this symbiant is supporting all his bodily functions, but that's not possible. It would mean the two creatures would have to grow together, or I suppose have the one implanted in the other at the moment of birth, but…"

"Could it be a parasite?" Tuvok questioned. "Many parasites do eventually kill their hosts, perhaps it fed on the internal organs."

"It's possible." Tom replied, still looking over the medical database. "Although I can tell you this. Whether it's a parasite or not, it can't be removed from our friend here without killing him."

Tuvok had just raised an eyebrow when the computer beeped. "Chakotay to Sickbay."

"Go ahead, Commander." Tuvok replied.

"Is B'Elanna finished with the Doctor yet?"

Tuvok looked over to the engineer, who had just put the panel back into place and even now was entering commands into it. A second later the Doctor materialized.

"Please state the…" The Doctor looked around Sickbay in confusion. "What happened?"

"Tuvok, you explain, then stay there until the Doctor figures out what is going on with our guest." Chakotay ordered over the comm. "B'Elanna, I need you in the computer lab, we've having an issue with the computer core our friend brought with him."

"On my way." B'Elanna replied as she finished packing up her tools.

"I did full scans, Doctor, but they're confusing…"

"Maybe to you, Mr. Paris, but I'm certain that will all my brilliance I'll find an answer in no time at all."

=/\=

"Captain." Harry nodded as he entered the ready room, handing her a PADD. "I've finished going over the data on the alien ship, not that we got much."

Kathryn tilted her head curiously at the hesitant note in his voice. "Problem?"

"It's strange." Harry summarized the report. "Their warp core was definitely overloading, but I can't figure out why. All their other systems appeared normal, and even though I obviously don't know all the specs for their systems, usually by the time you have a warp core breach you've got cascading damage to a number of other systems."

"And there's nothing?"

"Not that our sensors registered, although we only got a partial scan before the ship exploded." Harry replied. "Also, there's something strange about the distress signal. It was only being broadcast for about a light-year away from the ship, which is strange as interstellar ships normally have a much greater range."

"Maybe it was damaged." Kathryn replied, picking up the PADD and beginning to go over his report herself. "And like you said we don't really know their systems, so this partial scan could have missed any damage they had."

"You're right, Captain." Harry acquiesced at once, although the worry didn't leave his eyes.

"Still, go over it again, have Seven help you." Kathryn said after a moment's thought. "I'll study it as well, the last thing we need is to find we've been had… again."

Harry nodded and turned to leave.

"And Harry, keep this just between the three of us for now." Kathryn added as an afterthought, thinking of Chakotay's strange behavior.

Harry nodded and spun to leave.

It was possible that Chakotay was simply giving her distance to think things over, which would be just like him. But he had tried to finish the conversation the night before, and the complete turn-around seemed odd. Then again, maybe he had assumed she was going to reject him again and simply didn't want to make her say it. Or she could be right in the brief thought she had had earlier, the thought that something was wrong and he wasn't himself.

And if something was wrong with him, there was a chance that something was wrong with the two security officers that the alien had knocked out as well. Deciding against using the comm, Kathryn headed for Sickbay.

=/\=

"Report." Chakotay called out as the turbolift deposited him and B'Elanna on the bridge and they both moved to their stations.

Junior officers stood or sat a little straighter as they reported in, the summary being that there was no news other than that they were about a half hour from the planet.

The rest of alpha shift's bridge crew slowly filtered into their positions.

Ensign Baytart slid into Ensign Jenkins position at the helm, and Ensign Kyoto claimed Ops from Crewmen Foster. Lieutenant Ayala took Tactical over from Crewman Anderson even as B'Elanna lowered herself into the chair at the Engineering station.

The minute the doors closed behind the departing Gamma shift, B'Elanna spun around and gave Chakotay a nod. "Everything's set."

"Prepare to execute the plan when we reach the planet." Chakotay ordered.

Baytard acknowledged, adding, "ETA thirty-four minutes."

=/\=

"Computer, locate Seven of Nine." Harry queried a few minutes later when he walked into Astrometrics to find Seven not at her duty station.

"Seven of Nine is in Astrometrics."

Harry looked around in confusion even as he tapped his combadge. "Kim to Seven."

He heard his own voice echo from a corner of the room, and rushed over to find a combadge laying on the floor. Harry immediately tapped his badge again. "Kim to Janeway. Captain, I just found Seven's combadge on the floor in Astrometrics."

"But not Seven?" The concerned voice came back.

"Negative." Harry was already on the move. "I'll check the Cargo Bay, maybe she just lost it."

Kathryn knew how unlikely that was, but agreed that they had to check. "Notify me if she's not there.

"Yes, ma'am. Kim out."

"Please tell me the Doctor is up and running." Kathryn was already speaking as she entered Sickbay.

"I am, Captain." The man in question said acerbically as he frowned over scans on a monitor. "Thank you for the concern."

"Doctor. What's the diagnosis?" She asked without preamble, noting that both Tom and Tuvok were still present and that Tuvok shifted to stand behind her as she entered.

"Well, thanks to the fact that I have the knowledge of 42 medical professionals, as well as the logs of…"

"Doctor!" Kathryn cut him off.

"Mr. Tuvok?" The Doctor eyed the Vulcan significantly over her shoulder, and Kathryn spun around just in time to see Tuvok glance up from the back of her neck and nod. "She is unaffected."

"Doctor, what is going on?"

"Back in 2364, Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise helped to expose an attempted takeover of the Federation by an alien species." The Doctor replied pedantically.

"I remember that." Kathryn said after a moment of sorting through her memories. "The aliens were parasites that attached to the brain stem and basically controlled people. It took months for us to track down the multiple mother-creatures after they got the one at Headquarters, but that was the only way to get rid of the creatures without killing the people. Are you saying that…" She trailed off in shock.

"What little information we managed to gather on the mother-creatures matches the being inside this alien exactly, excepting for the alien's different body chemistry of course."

"Before he was killed the one in Headquarters was reported as sending a subspace message into an unknown region of space, presumably to wherever their species originates from." Tuvok took over. "The Doctor noted the similarities a moment ago, and I have been checking logs. We are indeed in the area of space the message was sent to."

"I noticed that something about Chakotay has been off since last night, but I thought it was just…" Kathryn trailed off rather than speak personal thoughts. "But if this is a mother-creature inside the alien, then it's likely it already infected Chakotay and the others last night."

"It's certainly possible." The Doctor replied. "I would need to do more in-depth scans of them than the ones Tom took briefly last night to be certain, however."

"And if we ask them to come in for scans they'll get suspicious." Kathryn replied at once.

"Also Captain, contact with the mother-creature is not necessary for infection." Tuvok added. "Many people were infected, from what they remember at least, by an already infected person carrying an extra parasite. If Chakotay and the others are infected, they may have already spread the creature to any number of people."

Kathryn's eyes widened. "Chakotay came to my quarters this morning with a case. Said he had reports in it, but he was very anxious about me seeing whatever was in that case."

"Computer, locate Commander Chakotay." Tuvok called out at once.

"Commander Chakotay is on the bridge."

"He could take complete control of the ship from there." Kathryn snapped out, angry at herself for not taking her concerns about him more seriously earlier. "But if they don't know yet that we're on to them…Tuvok, with me. Wait…" She suddenly stopped and turned to the Doctor, "Did the doctors even find a way to get the creatures out of people other than by killing the mother-creature?"

The Doctor glanced uneasily at his patient. "They developed a chemical agent that they believed would kill the creatures without harming the person, but there were too many ethical issues involved and the project was discontinued. Apparently killing the mother creature and allowing all the parasites dependant on it to die was acceptable, but a chemical agent that targeted those same parasites and killed them one by one was unacceptable. I can't speak as to why."

"Could you create the agent?" Kathryn queried.

"It would only take a moment, but Captain…"

"I cannot allow these creatures to remain in control of my crewmen, if indeed they are." She cut him off. "But I can't just summarily execute the alien either, especially as we're technically working on a theory, not to mention the fact that we don't know for sure this is a parasite. It's possible these two species coexist, that what to us is a parasite is in fact a symbiant to him."

"Also, Captain, there was one case where the mother-creature on a Starbase wasn't the mother of most of the parasites on that station. There is no guarantee that killing this alien, if he does indeed harbor a mother-creature, would destroy the hypothetical parasites that have taken over the Commander and the others." Tuvok interjected.

"Make the chemical agent, Doctor."

He nodded at once and headed over to the replicator to begin programming.

"Kim to Janeway."

"Go ahead, Ensign."

"Seven's not in the Cargo Bay, Captain." Harry reported. "I tried to get the computer to locate her biosignature, but apparently all internal sensors are down at the moment."

"Harry, report to Sickbay at once." Kathryn snapped. "Report to Mr. Paris when you get here. Janeway out."

The Doctor handed her and Tuvok each hyposprays. "This isn't a guarantee, Captain. As I said, the agent was developed but never field tested."

"No time like the present." Kathryn replied grimly. "Tom, once Harry gets here check him. If he's clean explain what's going on and then go to Engineering and start checking people as discretely as possible. Take the agent. Find an excuse to get them alone if you need to inject them. Tuvok and I will go to the bridge and do the same. Once those locations are secure we can branch out."

"What about Seven?" The Doctor piped up even as he continued to replicate the agent.

"I'm hoping they just stashed her somewhere because they couldn't infect her, but we don't have time to check right now. We can't tip our hand." Kathryn replied as she slid the hypo up her sleeve and watched Tuvok do the same. "Good luck, gentlemen."

=/\=

Kathryn moved to the upper railing as she and Tuvok entered the bridge, using the vantage point to look down at the back of Chakotay's neck. She saw the protruding gill she had half been hoping to see and half hoping wouldn't be there. She nodded to Tuvok, and he moved down to the command deck as she spoke, "Commander, I'd like to see you in my ready room for a minute. Tuvok, you have the bridge."

Chakotay rose at once, but hesitated. "We're only about ten minutes from the planet, Captain. I was just adjusting some of the assignments, the heads of the teams said you never showed up for the meeting and they had a few suggestions that sounded good."

"It'll only take a moment." She headed towards the ready room as if she knew he would fall in behind her, a technique that usually worked.

This time was no exception. She was careful to put her desk between them once he entered, and the moment the door closed behind him she spun to face him, her face hardening as she snapped, "Computer, execute program Janeway beta-two."

"Acknowledged. Ready room sealed." The computer replied calmly as forcefields shimmered into place in front of the doors.

"Chakotay to Torres." Chakotay slapped his combadge immediately, then took a threatening step towards Kathryn when the computer informed him that communications from the ready room were restricted to the captain only. "It's too late to stop us." He warned.

"It's never too late." She challenged, "Our Doctor figured out what you are."

"It doesn't matter." He replied, stalking towards her. "There's not what you call a mother-creature in the alien in Sickbay, it's just a surrogate. They carry the young to a new planet for colonization."

"Colonization meaning you take over the life forms on that planet." Kathryn snapped. "But I thought you needed a mother to reproduce more of the young; how many can the surrogate carry?"

Chakotay grinned as her back hit the wall. "Only about twenty or so, but that's enough to get a good grip on a city if they're implanted in the right people."

"And after that you call for reinforcements?" She kept her eyes on him as he got within touching distance. She needed as much information as possible before she gave him the hypo to kill the parasite; people varied in how much they remembered when they were cured from infection, but most of them didn't remember much about what the aliens had been thinking. She needed to know how this species worked since they were apparently in their space.

"No, the surrogate also carries a new mother, an immature one. Generally by the time a city is subdued the mother has been implanted in the leader of the city for quite some time, and is ready to produce more young."

Kathryn raised her eyebrows mockingly even as her insides spun with worry. If a mother creature had been implanted in Chakotay they might not be able to save him, but asking directly might cause him to realize how worried she was about him and use it against her. "I suppose I've had lizard babies, now you get to have strange, bug-like ones."

"Not me, Captain." He raised a case, the same one he had been carrying that morning. "The alien figured that no one who had come to Sickbay when he was first beamed there was the leader of this ship, so after we were joined he gave us the job of spreading the rest of the young, saving the mother for the captain. Then he used his weapon on a low stun setting to briefly knock us out so that nothing would be suspicious."

"So the whole thing was a set-up?" She questioned even as she maneuvered her hand slightly behind her back, allowing the hypo to drop into her palm, ready for use. "The distress call, the core breach, everything?"

"I don't know, but I assume so. We only had a minute to talk before Tuvok arrived." He stepped forward then, grabbing her upper arms with both of his strong hands.

She didn't try to pull away, knowing it would be useless. She doubted she would have the strength to break away from Chakotay normally if he ever tried to immobilize her like this, and she knew the parasite enhanced strength. Instead she struggled just enough to shift her right hand into an optimal position, poised like a snake ready to strike.

"I could have Tuvok in here in five seconds flat." She hissed as she pretended to fight him.

"You'll never finish making the call. I don't need you conscious." With that threat, one of his hands shifted up to her neck and she gasped as he began to apply pressure. She met his dispassionate eyes as she moved her now free arm forward, twisted her wrist and applied the hypospray to his femoral artery.

His eyes widened in shock immediately, and his entire body went stiff for an extended moment before he dropped to the floor.

=/\=

"Tuvok, please report to the ready room."

Tuvok raised an eyebrow as Chakotay's voice summoned him, and he found himself concerned that perhaps the chemical agent hadn't worked. But he couldn't do anything other than acknowledge without making the bridge crew suspicious, and he had already identified that as least two of them were infected. "On my way."

He barely contained a very unVulcan-like sigh of relief when he found Chakotay sitting in front of her desk with his head in his hands, and Kathryn standing just inside the door. She put her back to him by way of greeting, for once glad of the bad hair day that had caused her to pin her hair up and allow him to see her neck, both before in Sickbay and again now. She then slid her hand over the back of Chakotay's neck, ignoring the slight shudder that went through him as she lifted the hair from the back of his neck to expose a small hole, one that no longer had a gill sticking out of it.

Tuvok nodded. "The Doctor's chemical worked."

"I feel like I went five rounds with a Klingon and then drank a liter of whiskey, but I'm me again." Chakotay's voice was faint.

"I had him call you because there're four infected people on the bridge, and they're expecting him to have infected me by this point. Apparently the mother-creature was destined for me, and a person is unconscious for nearly an hour after being infected by one of those." Kathryn explained, leaving her hand on Chakotay's shoulder. "But he needed a moment to recover before going back out there, and this way they'll think you've been infected as well."

"I noticed the gill on Baytard and Torres, who else?"

"Ayala and Kyoto." Chakotay replied, finally looking up. "Murphey and Anderson are infected as well, along with Carrey, Wildman, Vorik, Jor, Celes, Chell, and Nicoletti. Four of the remaining parasites were intended for you, Kim, Paris, and Neelix with two leftover for anyone else we needed."

"Seven of Nine?"

"Wasn't compatible." Chakotay sighed. "Torres and Ayala knocked her out and locked her in the brig after they disabled the internal sensors. The plan is to beam everyone down to the planet once we're in orbit, leave only those infected on board while we wait for the mother to mature inside the captain, then infect the rest of the crew."

Tuvok nodded. "How should we proceed?"

"We've got to get all of them on the bridge away from their stations." Chakotay replied. "I don't remember it all, and it's still fading, but I know B'Elanna implanted a virus in the computer, something to make sure that we'd all end up on the planet no matter what. I'm pretty sure any of them can activate it."

"How long until we reach the planet?" Kathryn asked.

"We'll be in the system in less than a minute, Captain, but once we drop to impulse it will take ten minutes and twenty-six seconds to reach the planet." Tuvok reported.

"Paris to Janeway." The comm beeped.

"You can speak freely, Mr. Paris."

"I'm alone in B'Elanna's office, Captain." Tom's voice came softly. "Vorik, Carrey, and Jor are all down here, and all infected, but they're in the middle of running a diagnostic on something, we can't figure out how to pull them away one at a time without the others getting suspicious."

Kathryn quickly gave him a complete list of infected crew members, and he confirmed that none of them were in Engineering beyond the three he had already named. "Just keep an eye on them for now, we want to secure the bridge first, make sure no one up here can send a warning. And the serum the Doctor gave us does work by the way, Chakotay's back with us. A bit the worse for wear, but back to normal."

"Good to hear." Tom replied. "We'll wait for your signal. Oh, and I was looking up the logs while we were waiting. Level six on the phasers will incapacitate them without killing the crew."

"We may have to resort to that." Kathryn sighed. "It's taken Chakotay nearly five minutes to even begin to recover from the serum, and if we separate them out for that long they're likely to get suspicious. And there's some kind of failsafe in the computer, but Chakotay doesn't remember exactly what it does or how to stop it if it's activated."

"Understood. Paris out."

"Tuvok, I want you to go back out there, give us a few minutes to get set, then send B'Elanna in." Kathryn decided. "She's the one most likely to be able to get this virus out of the computer, assuming she remembers what she did. And it won't look strange for another member of the senior staff to be called in. Once she's back with us, we'll all return to the bridge and stun the remaining three on my signal. You'll have a perfect shot at helm from the command deck, we'll get the other two."

"Agreed, Captain." Tuvok replied as he turned to leave. "I will give you two minutes."

Chakotay rose as Tuvok left, swaying slightly as the room took a slow spin and reaching out without thought to steady himself.

Kathryn couldn't suppress a wince as his hand closed over her upper arm, and he jerked back from her with a look of horror spreading through his eyes. "I hurt you."

"It wasn't you." She said softly, "And I'm fine. We need to get ready."

Chakotay followed her as she started to move up to the couches. "Kathryn…"

"It's just a few bruises, Chakotay." She said softly as she sat, patting the couch beside her with one hand even as she raised her other towards him. He took her hand, although she could read the anxiety his face, and smiled to see it lessen as she linked their fingers together. "We don't have time to finish our conversation, but I promise that we will soon."

"Just tell me this, good, neutral, or bad news." He rose as he heard the door chime.

"Good." Kathryn replied softly as she sprawled back on the couch as if she had been dumped there. She saw the love and hope flash through his eyes before she let her own slide shut, and couldn't help the smile that flashed to her lips before she let her face go slack.

"Enter." Chakotay called out, glad that the shot of adrenaline from Kathryn's quiet response had made him feel more human. He palmed the hypospray that Kathryn had passed him, and prayed that it wouldn't take long for B'Elanna to turn her back to him. He wanted this situation over with as quickly as possible, not just for the safety of the ship but so he could hear the good news.

=/\=

"_Captain's log, supplemental. We've managed to eradicate the parasite from the remainder of the crew, and have put into stasis those creatures which were not already infecting a person. Without them, the alien in Sickbay has been surprisingly cooperative, and told us of a planet in a neighboring system where we can leave him and his remaining charges. Although I am loath to simply release him, he has promised that in return his people will give us safe passage through their space. The planet we will be leaving him on has a population of nearly a billion, and all are already infected. The scope of saving them all is simply beyond us, and if we tried we would likely start a war with the species that Voyager cannot afford."_

"Computer, save log." Kathryn sighed as her door chime rang, and she called out for whoever it was to enter.

"Am I disturbing you, Captain?" Chakotay entered her quarters more hesitantly than he had the first time all those years ago.

"No, I'm just working on my log." She sighed again. "This is one of those situations where I feel like there's no correct answer."

"He surrendered to us once he realized he had lost, and the Federation doesn't execute prisoners." Chakotay offered as he watched her cross to the couch, joining her when she gestured. "If we were in the Alpha Quadrant he would get a trial and likely end up in prison, but we don't have that option. And we don't have the resources to try and save billions of people. The best thing we can do is get him off the ship, and then get out of their space."

"I just keep wondering how many planets they've taken over." Kathryn replied softly. "How many cultures and species they've… well, assimilated for lack of a better word."

"We'll never know." Chakotay's voice was just as soft. "But there's nothing we can do about it."

Kathryn sighed as rested her head back against the couch. "Even knowing Command would agree with my decision…"

"You hate when there's no good solution." Chakotay offered as she trailed off.

She tilted her head in his direction, regarding him with emotional eyes. "I really do. Which is why I kept putting something off, because I couldn't find a good solution."

"And now you have?"

"I don't know." She said softly. "Can breaking protocol ever be right?"

He chuckled even as he reached out to take her hand. "Are you asking your first officer or your friend?"

She returned his smile with one of her own. "My friend."

"No rule covers every situation, Kathryn." Chakotay's dimples flashed as he laced their fingers together. "We have no idea how long we're going to be out here, and Starfleet can't expect you to hold yourself back from everyone. Kathryn, I…"

She stroked her thumb over his when he trailed off. "Say whatever you're thinking."

He took a deep breath. "I've seen changes in you over the past few years. It's not good for a person to be as isolated as you are. I do what I can, what you let me… But you can't go on like this, you won't survive. No one could."

"I know." She admitted on a whisper. "But I keep thinking that we could get back next week, or next month, and after putting it off for so long how would I justify myself to Command? Say I stopped believing we would get back?"

"There may be no good solution here either, Kathryn." Chakotay said softly. "But there's a difference between giving up on getting home, and acknowledging that it may take another five years, or ten, or more. We've had to break a few rules to survive out here, and if Starfleet has a problem with our decisions once we get home we'll face them together, just like we have every challenge we've beaten out here."

"You almost make me believe it could work." Her eyes widened as he slid closer to her, and she was afraid of what she would do if he tried to kiss her.

Instead, he dropped her hand and leaned back against the couch, gently putting his arm around her shoulders. The tension he had been holding unto released when he felt her head tilt to rest against his shoulder. "I don't know if it will or not, but I know I want to try. If you do."

The last words were barely a whisper, and Kathryn let out the last of the tension she had been holding at the mix of love and patience in his voice. "I think I do. Right at this moment it seems so simple."

"It'll be anything but simple, but when have we not been up to a challenge?"

She chuckled. "I do wish we didn't have quite so many of them."

He laughed along with her as he tilted his cheek down to rest on the top of her head, then grew serious again. "Are we really going to try this?"

She shifted slightly, snuggling a little more into his side. "Yes, Chakotay, I think that we are." She could feel his smile grow, and for a moment she let go of everything else, all the worries and doubts and second-guessing that were constantly with her, and she simply let herself relax in his arms. For the first time in years, she felt like she was home.

The End


End file.
